Posts Tagged ‘mother’

At the end of our rope with not only our finances but with the education our kids seemed to not be getting, we looked into homeschool and working from home. That’s when we found the John Commuta system and purchased it. The worksheets talked us through the system and helped us not only lower our monthly bills but eliminate them all together. The system also helped us analyze our finaces in a different way. Continue reading “Bennefits of homeschool” »

Many people are mortified when they see a child wearing a restraining harness or leash as they are often called. I myself was totally disgusted when I was a teenager and saw this lady walking in the mall with her son with what appeared to me as a dog leash strapped to her sons chest. My mouth gapped and that is when those words “I’ll never put my child on a leash”, popped out of my mouth. Yup you guessed it, I have eaten every single one of those words and I am proud of it.

One of the most difficult challenges that comes with motherhood is the loneliness and lack of companionship. Even though you are with somebody 24/7, you are actually alone,and it is not easy to make friends when you are taking care of that little person around the clock. I have really struggled with this area in my life and still find it difficult to make friends with other mothers. Now that I am in a completely new environment, it is time to learn how to create new “mom connections” and make friends.

I have been reading the book Mom Connectionby Tracey Bianchi, which is about “creating vibrant relationships in the midst of motherhood,” to help me learn how to accomplish this. I love the MOPS organization and found their previously sponsored book to be very encouraging and uplifting. Now, I am learning an important life lesson through the workbook/inspirational book Mom Connection. A class on how to make friends and build relationships was not offered to me growing up, even though it is a very important part of life.

Some people are naturally outgoing and do not struggle with this nearly as much as we introverted people. Even with an outgoing personality, you may not know how to foster those connections you make, though. For those of you who feel like this is an area you need to develop more, the Mom Connection book is an amazing life tool. From creating your own life rhythm to sharing it with others, this book can teach anyone to grow their relationship personalities through it’s helpful tools and exercises.

This book is about living into life’s rhythm so we can connect and create vibrant relationships as moms. ~Tracey Bianchi

I have learned so much about myself and some of my personality flaws by seriously thinking through the questions Tracey poses at the end of each chapter. After understanding myself better, I have been able to improve my personality traits and this is helping me grow better relationships. This is extremely important because every mom needs to make connections if she wants to stay sane after having a baby.

Even though I have struggled to make good mom friends, I have a supportive family that I knew I could always depend on whenever I needed help or advice. Now that I am on the opposite side of the continent, I need a new support group that I know I can depend on. I will always have my family to talk to, but I need some mom connections too.

If you would like a copy of Mom Connection, you can buy it on Amazon.com and enter to win it in my giveaway. This book is sponsored by the MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) organization, which I absolutely love and encourage all moms to check them out. If you would like to know more about Tracey and this book, check out her website called TraceyBianchi.com.

Breastfeeding a Toddler:

I have now reached the 18 month breastfeeding milestone with my precious baby or, more accurately, toddler and we are doing quite well. It has been a wonderful bonding process that I would not trade for anything. I’m just not sure if I will be able to give up this special time with my baby.

Since her first birthday, I have been very slowly weaning her and we are now down to one nursing session before bed. The weaning process has been much easier on both of us by doing it this way. I mostly have been taking her lead in slowly dropping the times we nurse but I think it will be hard to cut out this bed time breastfeeding session.

My husband has been dropping hints that I need to wean her completely now, but I just don’t feel ready yet. Watching your baby turn into an independent person makes you sad and happy at the same time. It also makes me want to have another baby, although I am not sure if I can handle that much more responsibility right now.

For the time being, I am content with looking back at how far we have come as a family. Seeing my baby grow and develop while giving me plenty of challenges to work through has made our family bond tighter and me a little wiser. I have truly enjoyed growing into the role of Mother by caring for my sweet Anneliese.

Now, my sweet little baby has turned into a rambunctious toddler with a will of her own. She doesn’t slow down to nurse until we have gone through her bedtime routine. I think in the next month we may both be ready to wean completely from nursing.

It’s a little sad to think about now, but it is one step among many on the road towards independence. I will just have to get used to the idea that she may always be my baby but she will not remain a baby for long.

Breastfeeding my baby has been a wonderful, precious chapter in my life and I would encourage every new mom to try it before formula. This was the best decision I could have made for my baby thus far. We are healthy and happy, and we have made it 18 months.

Maybe I will end up breastfeeding her until she is two, I’m not sure yet. I suppose we will cross that bridge when we get there. How about you?

Once I found out I was pregnant, I wanted to learn all I could about my pregnancy and taking care of a baby. I did a lot of searching for pregnancy information and good parenting websites. Looking back, I wasted a good bit of time weeding through information to find what I was looking for. So I decided to create a list of my top 20 resources for pregnancy and parenting to help others find that information more easily. I hope it helps and please pass this information along!

List of Resources for Pregnancy and Parenting:

1. What To Expect - Heidi Murkoff, author of the well known book What to Expect When You’re Expecting has a great website devoted to pregnancy and early parenting, and I found her week-by-week pregnancy tracker to be a great source of information for me when I was pregnant.

2. StorkNet Birth Stories - When I was pregnant I could not read enough birth stories. I wanted to read about all different types of birth experiences and I loved the wide variety of stories that people posted on StorkNet.

3. Parenting Community - Although I personally do not believe in everything I have read on the Parenting website, they do have a great community for just about every parenting situation. I found some great advice from other parents and being involved in an online community has been very encouraging for me.

4. WebMD Pregnancy Health - Whenever I had health questions during my pregnancy, I always found good information at WebMD. It also came in handy for my new mom paranoia questions.

6. WomensHealth.gov Pregnancy - The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has a special website dedicated to Women’s Health and gives a good bit of information for pregnancy, including government programs for pregnant and new moms.

7. La Leche League International - La Leche League is my favorite website for breastfeeding information and help. It has plenty of information and if you cannot find the answers to your breastfeeding problems, it can point you to someone who wouls be glad to help.

8. Mothers of Preschoolers (MOPS) - I love the MOPS group and their support for mothers of all ages and stages. If you do not have a local community to get involved with, then you can find support from their online community.

11.HypnoBirthing (Mongan Method) - This is another technique I considered for a natural childbirth, which involves total relaxation and self hypnosis.

12.Baby Center - I loved the wide variety of conception, pregnancy and parenting tools that I found here and sometimes I would browse around their forum while I was their.

13.Mothering – For a while I was addicted to the “Ask the Experts” section of this website, which lets you ask a child care specialist any question and browse the Q&A from other users. I still like to use it whenever I have an odd parenting question.

14.Kids Health - If you feel like you need a crash course in parenting, this website provides a good guide.

15.Breastfeeding.com - I found the Breastfeeding Q&A to be very helpful and supportive for breastfeeding moms who have questions, problems or concerns.

16.Cafe Mom - This online community is all about supporting mothers and giving them a voice. I just check in now and then, but some find it very helpful to stay involved in a community for moms.

18.Ask Dr. Sears - I am a big fan of Dr. Sears’ pediatric and parenting philosophies,which you may remember from my immunization article. His website is a great parenting resource from a pediatrician’s point-of-view.

19.Childbirth Connection - This article on Childbirth Connections has a comprehensive list of resources for pregnancy complications and issues.

20.FAMILY! I know it seems like I am cheating to have this as a resource, but I have found it to be so true. Family members that have children are the best people to go to for everyday advice because they know you and your situation best. I have been blessed with a wonderful family that has provided me with much need support through my pregnancy and parenting adventures.

Have you found a website to be extremely helpful that I did not mention? Please let me know of any good pregnancy / parenting resources I may have forgot.